Ellington

The Mississippi Legislature passed a bill mandating that the state better preserve crime scene DNA evidence and conduct DNA testing on biological evidence.

A legislative task force determined last year the necessity of the state to keep better tabs on DNA evidence and use DNA testing more often in criminal cases. The result of the task force's findings, SB 2709, also encourages the state to maintain and use DNA evidence in order to avoid wrongful convictions. The bill asserts that "innocent people mistakenly convicted of the serious crimes for which biological evidence is probative cannot prove their innocence if such evidence is not accessible for testing in appropriate circumstances."

Sen. David Blount, D-Jackson, is a co-author and proponent of the bill, who said the reason for the bill is self-explanatory.

"It provides evidence for folks convicted of felonies to prove their innocence, and it will help improve evidence collection to catch the real criminals," Blount said.

Rep. Bobby Moak, D-Bogue Chitto, said the bill would likely be revenue neutral, and even offer the state an opportunity to pick up some revenue.

"There's a pot of federal money that goes back to the federal government because all the states are not able to get the money or they don't need it, and Mississippi would have an opportunity to get some funds," Moak said.

Moak believed $7 million of a $32 million reservoir of funds went back to the federal government because states like Mississippi did not have the resources to meet federal requirements for DNA preservation.

"Without this legislation we can't even file the application for the funding," Moak said.

The House took up the bill late last week after moving the legislation up from the bottom of the House calendar. The bill is now headed to the governor's office for a final signature.

Attorney Ron Welch praised the bill.

"Any kind of justice system needs to be concerned with the truth," Welch said. "I represented a guy in a post conviction, and we found that the evidence hadn't been properly preserved. Thankfully there was a top-ranked company in New Orleans that managed to test the material, but that was a classic case of a guy trying to prove his innocence, but couldn't because it hadn't been preserved."